RESTAURANT REVIEWS

What a Sweet Afternoon – Luxury High Tea Experience

No Comments

I’ve been craving sweets all week and today I am fully satisfied! I went to Cafe Essence for afternoon tea. We sat in the lobby area as I really enjoy the natural light but they also have ample seats in the cafe area.

There are menus on all the lobby tables for browsing for passing-byers. We started looking through it and I was pretty set on having the afternoon tea set. My hubby already had a full lunch so he opted for dessert and coffee. The afternoon set does take a maximum of 30 minutes to prepare which the server had notified me ahead of time.  For us it took maybe 15-20 minutes, the wait did not seem very long at all. There are a total of 3 options for afternoon tea which takes place between 3-6PM, there is the traditional afternoon tea set which I ordered, the chocolate tea set which is mainly sweets without the savory sandwiches and last the arabic afternoon tea set. 

Drinks

After ordering, our server came with welcome drinks. It was a pleasant refreshing surprise! The drink was a fruity mock tail which tasted like Sprite with cranberry juice. Soon after, they came out with our hot drinks. I ordered a black loose leaf tea and it came with milk and sugar and a full pot. My hubby’s coffee also came with a full pot. The pots were rather large and neither of us finished our pots.  For the black tea I ordered, I preferred it to be more rich and bold but this one was a bit light. One small note was that there was no strainer in the pot so I did get some leaves in my cup. Nonetheless, the China it came in was beautiful!

Sandwiches & Sweets

I was super impressed when the main afternoon set came. It came in a large 3 tier afternoon set which was beautifully presented. Each item came in a pair and there were at least 11 items.  In total 22 items for 1 person was more than enough! Each item was so delicately made. I cannot believe this full set is for only 1 person. Ensure you have at least 2 people for 1 set for afternoon tea at this place. The set came with 4 types of sandwiches – asparagus, salmon, salami, egg. It comes with scone, a strawberry cake and a brownie and the top layer has macarons, a cone pastry, a pudding and a blueberry tart. These selections may change overtime by the cafe.

Some of the noteworthy items are the macarons covered in gold flakes and the strawberry/raspberry cake also have gold flakes dusted on top. The asparagus sandwich which was light and appetizing and the scones come with clotted cream and jam. Service was impeccable and the price was great too.

It’s 135AED for the full set including the drink. But in reality, this set serves 2 people though!

Essence - Beach Rotana Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Continue Reading

EXPAT LIFE

Wallpaper Does Wonders – How to Hang Wallpaper

No Comments
I am so in love with my new wallpaper! It revamped my bedroom, giving it a modern and classy look. This project costed me $28 for the wallpaper and around $10 for the supplies. My hubby and I hung it together and took 2.5 hours to cover our wall around 10ft high and 10ft wide.  Here’s a quick tutorial on how to hang wallpaper.

Supplies

(1)Wallpaper
(2)Adhesive
(3)Exacto Knife
(4)Adhesive Brush
(5)Smoother(s)
& at least 2 people
The adhesive I bought was the type that was clear and required no mixing with water. It was a lot cleaner to work with and this amount was just enough for  10ft by 10ft wall. It was around $6.99 CAD at Home Depot.
Adhesive brush was used to apply the adhesive to the wall. We had to make sure we applied a thick layer to the wall as thin layers dries up too fast. This was around $3.95 CAD at Home Depot. The only thing to make sure for next time is to get a brush that fits the size of the adhesive container.
I purchased 2 types of smoothers. The top one with felt was around $4 CAD and the yellow flat smoother was less than $2 CAD at Home Depot. In my opinion the yellow flat smoother was the better one to work with as it was easiest to use and make creases for the ends.
The wallpaper I purchased was a design from Grahamandbrown.com however, I purchased them from HOMESENSE. I was able to get a good deal on them because the packaging was open and some of the paper at the end was damaged so I asked for a discount at HOMESENSE. (1 roll at $9 and 1 roll at $16) Original price of these rolls are $49.99 CAD from Grahamandbrown.com and priced regularly at $24.99 CAD at HOMESENSE. They had many other types of patterns but it IS difficult to find the same pattern from the same store.
**TIP ** Choose wallpapers with a pattern as they will look better and creases between strips will be less noticeable.

Step-By-Step

***It is recommended to have 2 people to work on this project.***

STEP 1
Using a ladder we placed the wallpaper at the top and measured accordingly to what we needed. We had to ensure we left extra space at the top and bottom in case. Then we cut the wallpaper to the estimated amount so we do not have to work with the entire roll. Ensure you match up the pattern from strip to strip.
STEP 2
We applied the adhesive by brushing the glue from the top to the bottom in a thick even layer.
STEP 3
From the top downwards, hang the wallpaper and use the smoother to brush out the bubbles. The hardest part is matching up the patterns to ensure there are no creases in between the strips. For some of them it took a few tries for us to match up the pattern correctly.
STEP4: Lastly, use an exacto knife to cut off the ends from the ceiling and floor.

OUTLETS & SWITCHES

Take the cover off and cut a hole in the wallpaper where the output/lightswitch is. The edges do not have to be too neat as the covers will hide them.
Continue Reading